“The
light of the East has illumined the universal Church, from the moment
when ‘a rising sun’ appeared above us: Jesus Christ, our Lord,
whom all Christians invoke as the Redeemer of man and the hope of the
world.”

Thus
began Pope John Paul II’s 1995 apostolic letter Orientale
Lumen (“Light of the
East), which encourages Latin Catholics to better know the traditions
of the Christian East.

Rather
than collecting dust on a Vatican shelf, the letter has continued to
inspire a Washington, D.C.-based grassroots ecumenical movement for
almost two decades. Initially planned as a single meeting to discuss
John Paul’s work, the Orientale
Lumen Conference has become an annual gathering open to anyone.
In some ways, it has kept the light of Orthodox-Catholic dialogue
burning while official dialogues have hit roadblocks.

And
for that it has received acclaim from leaders in both the Orthodox
and Catholic Churches.

“Although
you say your movement is grassroots, I’m convinced it’s rooted in
heaven and inspired by the Holy Spirit,” the Ecumenical Patriarch,
Bartholomew, Archbishop of Constantinople, told the apostolate on its
10th
anniversary.

“It’s
exactly the kind of thing the ecumenical movement needs,” said
Paulist Father Ronald G. Roberson,
a top ecumenical officer of the United States Conference of Catholic
Bishops. “People go home from these conferences and talk to their
friends,” said Father Roberson, who is associate director of the
U.S. bishops’ Secretariat for Ecumenical and Interreligious
Affairs. “The hope is they go back and talk to people and it has a
ripple effect. It’s an excellent project. My initial pessimism was
not wall-founded.”

That
would have been in 1996, when Jack Figel, a Byzantine Catholic from
Fairfax, Va., and Metropolitan Kallistos Ware, who teaches at Oxford,
were planning the initial event.

Figel,
who grew up in a Slovak family near Pittsburgh, rediscovered his
Eastern Christian roots when he was in college. In the early 1990s,
he met a priest in England who wanted to revive publications of the
ecumenical Society of St.
John Chrysostom. The result was Eastern
Churches Journal. Later,
when the priest, Father Serge Kelleher, and an Orthodox bishop,
Vsevolod of Scopelos, wanted to reprint a liturgical book from 17th
century Kiev, Figel started Eastern
Christian Publications, which he still runs. ECP’s list
includes books, DVDs and CDs on ecumenism and Eastern Christianity.

Figel
met Orthodox Bishop Kallistos Ware, a theologian and a metropolitan
in the Ecumenical Patriarchate, in 1996.

“Over
dinner, I proposed the idea of holding an open-to-the-public
ecumenical meeting about Orientale
Lumen,” Figel recalled during
a recent interview in Washington. “Bishop Kallistos immediately
agreed and even got his diary out and we planned the conference for
June of 1997. I knew the dean here at Catholic University, Father
Raymond Collins. I went to him with the idea; he thought it was
great. He said he would cosponsor it as the dean of theology and
religious studies.”

In
the apostolic letter, John Paul reminded Christians that “a
particularly close link already binds” Catholics and Orthodox. “We
have almost everything in common; and above all, we have in common
the true longing for unity,” John Paul wrote.

Both
Churches are apostolic in origin and have a valid episcopate,
priesthood and the seven sacraments.

The
Pope pointed out that unity between Rome and Constantinople endured
“for the whole of the first millennium, despite difficulties. We
have increasingly learned that it was not so much an historical
episode or a mere question of preeminence that tore the fabric of
unity, as it was a progressive estrangement, so that the other's
diversity was no longer perceived as a common treasure, but as
incompatibility.”

The
Pontiff recommended “improving our knowledge of one another” in
order to grow in unity. “The children of the Catholic Church
already know the ways indicated by the Holy See for achieving this:
to know the liturgy of the Eastern Churches; to deepen their
knowledge of the spiritual traditions of the Fathers and Doctors of
the Christian East, to follow the example of the Eastern Churches for
the inculturation of the Gospel message; to combat tensions between
Latins and Orientals and to encourage dialogue between Catholics and
the Orthodox…”

Just
the things the Orientale Lumen Conferences have been doing ever
since.

The
first conference featured Metropolitan Kallistos; Melkite Catholic
Bishop Nicholas Samra, and Bishop Basil Losten, then-eparch of the
Ukrainian Greek Catholic Church of Stamford, Conn, who said, "Beyond
any question,
Orientale Lumen is
the most important Catholic document on the Eastern Churches since
the Second Vatican Council.”

“Everyone
who camewe had about a hundred people at that first
conferencesaid that this was a wonderful idea and that we should
keep doing it,” Figel said.

Heavy
Hitters

But
if the conferences are grassroots, it’s far from being a simple
forum where ordinary Christians sit around and say nice things to one
another. It’s been able to attract quite a few “heavy hitters”
in the ecumenical world over the years, and because only their main
speeches are recorded, they often feel free to speak candidly during
question-and-answer sessions.

“I’ve
heard the most radical things said by people in an informal setting,
off the record, bouncing ideas off each other, in an environment
where you’re not speaking as a representative of the Church,”
said Joseph Bernard, a Byzantine Catholic from Virginia and a regular
attendee.

“I’ve
been told by Church officials involved in the official dialogue that
in many ways what we do with Orientale Lumen they couldn’t do
themselves because if any of them hosted it, people would think
there’s some agenda, there’s something behind it,” Figel said.
“And this, not being connected with any particular Churcheveryone
is open and welcome to comeit’s not connected, so there’s no
agenda.”

Patriarch
Bartholomew himself addressed the gathering when it met in
Istanbulancient Constantinoplefor the first time, in 2004.
Other speakers over the years have included Cardinals Edward Cassidy
of the Pontifical Council for Promoting Christian Unity, Donald Wuerl
of Washington and William Keeler of Baltimore; Gregorios III, Melkite
Patriarch of Alexandria and All the East; two recent primates of the
Orthodox Church in AmericaMetropolitan Jonah and Metropolitan
Tikhon, and Archimandrite Robert Taft, S.J., a preeminent historian
of the Byzantine liturgy.

Orientale
Lumen delegations have traveled to Rome to meet Popes John Paul II
and Benedict XVI, as well as the Pontifical Council for Promoting
Christian Unity.

Figel
tries to alternate the annual conferences between ecumenical
discussions and education on issues in the Eastern Churches. In
addition to John Paul II’s Orientale
Lumen letter, the conferences
have looked at the Pope’s encyclical on ecumenism, Ut
Unum Sint, in which he expressed
his openness to a new approach to exercising papal primacy; Mary;
primacy and conciliarity; the Eucharist; Eastern Catholic Churches;
patriarchates; liturgy as a foundation for dialogue; icons; Eastern
Church feast days; monastic spirituality; the councils of the Church,
and theology of the laity.

Normally
meeting in Washington, D.C., Orientale Lumen has met in Istanbul
three times. The first of those visits, in 2004, was extended with a
bus trip to the city of Iznik, the ancient site of Nicaea, where the
first and seventh ecumenical councils were held. The site of the
first council, the imperial palace, is now under a lake, but visitors
toured the ruins of a church that was the site of the seventh
council, which condemned iconoclasm. The group then gathered in the
synthrenon, an area of circular benches behind the altar, where
Metropolitan Kallistos gave a talk on the importance of the councils
in Church history and the development of the Nicene Creed. The group
then recited the Creed together as an ecumenical prayer for Church
unity.

Ecumenism
of Friendship

Unity
is the common theme running through each conference, and this year’s
gathering, held June 17-20, brought together a panel of experts who
were involved in writing a 2010 “vision statement” on what steps
could bring about full communion between Orthodox and Catholics.

Several
members of the North American Orthodox-Catholic Theological
Consultation spoke about their statement, “Steps
Toward a Reunited Church: A Sketch of an Orthodox-Catholic Vision for
the Future”: Protopresbyter James Dutko, an Orthodox pastor
from Binghamton, N.Y.; Father Thomas FitzGerald, dean and professor
of Church history and historical theology at Hellenic College-Holy
Cross Greek Orthodox School of Theology in Brookline, Mass.; Father
Sidney Griffith, professor in the Department of Semitic and Egyptian
Languages and Literatures at the Institute of Christian Oriental
Research of The Catholic University of America; Father Roberson, and
Sister of Charity Susan Wood, professor of theology at Marquette
University and president-elect of the Catholic Theological Society of
America.

Also
speaking were Metropolitan Tikhon and Archimandrite Robert Taft,
S.J., who taught for many years at the Pontifical Oriental Institute
in Rome.

Metropolitan
Tikhon arrived in black cassock and white klobuk. Sporting a long
greying beard and pectoral medallion of the Theotokos, he delivered
his talk from notes on an Apple laptop at the podium.

“The
first invitation I accepted after my election was lunch at Jack
Figel’s house. I was able to get a glimpse into the great work he’s
done with Eastern Christian Publications and the many Orientale Lumen
conferences throughout the years,” he said, commending Figel’s
“energy and zeal in the valuable work of sharing Christian
traditions both Eastern and Western.”

The
conference took place at the Washington Retreat House, run by the
Franciscan Sisters of the Atonement, whose chapel was modified for
the three days with a temporary icon screen. Sung morning liturgies
were in the Byzantine or Armenian rite and included a Moleben to the
Holy Spirit and Akathists to Christ and the Mother of God.

“We
try to provide a balance in our agenda [among three things:] prayer,
for the soul; plenary talks and lectures for the mind, and fellowship
for the spirit,” Figel said. Attendees develop “ecumenical
friendships” and return year after year to keep those friendships
alive. “Everyone who comes has an interest in ecumenical dialogue
and wants to learn about each other and more about each other’s
traditions, as well as from our speakers,” Figel said.

Those
friendships are on the lay level but also among priests, bishops and
theologians. That helped keep Orthodox-Catholic relations alive while
the Joint International Commission for Theological Dialogue between
the Catholic Church and the Orthodox Church was suspended for six
years, after a contentious meeting in Emmitsburg, Md., in 2000, over
the role of Eastern Catholic Churches.

“We
kept meeting all through that time, every year,” Figel said. “So
some have said we kept the dialogue alive, even with a small spark.
And now it’s grown with the Ravenna
document and plenary meetings almost every year and making great
progress. During the downturn of the official dialogue, we were still
maintaining the relations and kept on meeting.”

From
2000, when the meeting in Emmitsburg failed, until the 2006 meeting in
Belgrade when international dialogue resumed, notable attendees of
conferences in Washington, San Diego, or Istanbul included Patriarch
Bartholomew of Constantinople, Patriarch Gregorios of Antioch,
Cardinal William Keeler of Baltimore, Metropolitan Kallistos of
Diokleia, Archbishop Vsevolod of Scopelos, and Msgr.
Johan Bonny from the Pontifical Council for Unity in the Vatican.
“While the two patriarchs and Archbishop
Vsevolod were not members of the dialogue,” Figel pointed out,
“they played significant roles in ecumenical relations.”

Cardinal
Lubomyr Husar, retired Major Archbishop of the Ukrainian Greek
Catholic Church, attended the second OL conference in Constantinople,
in 2007, and took note of the atmosphere. “He felt the experience
with our group is like what it will be in heaven: perfect unity,
because he said, ‘In your group I felt no confessional politics. No
one had an axe to grind. They were all there as pilgrims to learn
from each other and pray together and so forth.’ The letter he
wrote me said this is a foretaste of what full unity is going to be
like” Figel recalled.

The
recent gathering in Washington was attended by a healthy mixture of
bishops, priests, deacons, and laity, many of whom have roles in
their churches, such as ecumenical officers, teachers, cantors and
lectors. Catholic religious, such as Benedictines, Augustinians,
Dominicans and Oblates, some of whom are Eastern-rite, shared meals
with people who had no particular degrees in theology, history,
ecclesiology or liturgy but seemed to be very well versed in those
subjects, particularly in regard to relations between East and West.

“We’ve
made tremendous strides [over the years]. It gives you a greater
understanding of the universal Church,” said Benedictine Father
Paschal Morlino, pastor of St. Benedict’s parish in Baltimore.

“Orientale
Lumen is a wonderful opportunity
for both sides, Catholic and Orthodox, to get together and discuss
what we have in common and also to discuss what separates us,” said
Orthodox Deacon Michael Bishop, from
Baltimore. “Often the real
problems are not the issues, but our perception of the issues. This
was an opportunity for us to hear ‘the other side’ of the coin.”

“The
word is being spread,” said Gloria Brissette, a Ruthenian Catholic
from San Diego. “If just one new soul goes forth to enlighten others
we have succeeded.”

Sister
Churches

Figel’s
apostolate to foster greater understanding is going beyond the
conferences. One of his latest ventures is Theosis
magazine, which features
articles on spiritual topics, prayers and information for each day of
the liturgical year. Most of the feast days are different from those
on the Latin Catholic calendar, and a Roman Catholic might find many
of the saints commemorated to be unfamiliar. The magazine, which
looks a bit like Magnificat,
is intended for both Orthodox and Catholics.

In
addition, Figel runs Orientale Lumen TV, which is putting together a
series of educational videos called Sister
Churches 101, to introduce a wider audiencethrough YouTube and
parish screenings and discussion groupsto the issues involved in
Catholic-Orthodox dialogue.

For
many Christians, it’s a subject that doesn’t often come up on
their radar screens. Panelists at this year’s conference discussed
means of getting the word out, particularly since their vision
statement suggested ways average Christians might be more involved in
ecumenism.

“Some
people have come to experience division as the norm, thinking, ‘Why
do we need to do anything?’” lamented Father Roberson.

“We
can remind our congregations of our sister churches more often than
we do,” suggested Father Griffith. “We usually have a pulpit
where we can address hundreds of people. People could be made more
aware of lots of things, such as icons.”

The
60-70 people gathered for this year’s conferenceestimated to
consist of some 40% Roman Catholic, 40% Byzantine Catholic and 20%
Orthodoxwere seen as leaven who can help increase ecumenical
awareness.

“The
very fact that this group gathered for prayer would not have been
done by your grandparents,” said Father FitzGerald. “Some work
has filtered down to the grassrootsnot as much as we like.”

“Sometimes
we on the Consultation wonder if anyone cares,” said Father Dutko.
“You do, and it matters a lot.… How many times have you been
asked, ‘Do you really believe the Church can be united?’ You’re
going to live to see it. That’s what I believe. The reality is
reflected in the prayer of our Lordthat all may be one. If you
don’t believe his prayer can be fulfilled, how do you expect ours
will? Since this is his prayer it must also be ours.

“As
believers, all of us are called to be agents of healing of the
division between East and West,” Father Dutko continued. “The
task of unity is oursall of us. It’s four-fold: we pray for each
other, talk with each other, serve the Lord together, love one
another. On the feasts of Sts. Peter and Paul [patron saints of Rome]
and St. Andrew [patron of Constantinople], could we not seek
opportunities to encounter each other in similar ways? Open houses,
tours of our places of worship and receptions for guests would be
good ways to break the ice. Prayer services, educational forums,
spirituality.”

For
Figel, the motivation goes back to what Ecumenical Patriarch
Bartholomew said: “Although you say your movement is grassroots,
I’m convinced it’s rooted in heaven and inspired by the Holy
Spirit.”

“That’s
what motivates me,” Figel said. “I get these ideas. I can’t
think that they come from anywhere else but the Holy Spirit and all I
do is say ‘Yes,’ and it happens.”

About the Author

John Burger

John Burger is news editor of Aleteia.org.

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